Chapter Text
(Paul Blofish pov)
A smile crept onto my face as I watched the father-daughter duo on my screen share their moment. Although I had no idea what Annabeth had signed, I figured she had just told her father she wanted to switch to Goode, given how Fredrick had reacted.
"She does want to go to Goode!" He confirmed.
"Congratulations! I can't wait to see you at Goode," I spoke, a smile on my face.
The Zoom ended a couple of minutes after that exciting moment, and as soon as it did, I shut my laptop, as I continued to smile.
The whole reason I chose to start teaching at Goode was to make a difference in the school board. My eldest, Tyson got diagnosed with autism when he was two years old. His mother could not handle having a special needs child, so I ended up raising him by myself. By the time he turned five, I met Sally. Nothing started right away, as she was still grieving her fiancé's disappearance at sea.
After a year of knowing each other, I finally grew enough confidence and asked her out. The whole night, we both talked about our children. That is when I found out about her son, Percy. He is two years younger than Tyson and had been diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia a few months before us meeting, and Sally was not sure if Percy would be able to go to a school that would be able to give him the help he needed to properly learn.
The only thing I needed to finally decide that I want to be a teacher was both of our children. Most of the other teachers did not like that I chose to teach both of my children, because it would give them an unfair advantage in their work, I quickly proved to them that both of the boys could show that they could learn the material on their own; no matter how low their scores were.
Over the years, I have moved schools with the boys, so that Sally and I can be reassured that they are getting the education they deserve. These moves were due to Percy getting in trouble at most of his past schools. Percy has never been a bad kid. The majority of the trouble he got into was sticking up for kids who were being bullied, or because of his grades.
"Are we getting another student at Goode?" Percy asked me, walking into my office.
"We are," I replied, finally standing.
"That's exciting," he said, smiling back at me.
"Do you need a ride to practice?" I asked, picking up my keys incase his answer was 'yes'.
"No, I was going to stay here today, but Jason and Frank want to go see a movie, and my shoulder still hurts," he answered.
The last time those three boys went out to do anything, it ended with Frank accidentally flinging Percy off a swing in our local park. Luckily, Percy did not get hurt more than he already was; he left the scene with just a sore shoulder, but lied and told his coach that he had helped a woman from getting robbed on the subway.
"Don't get more hurt tonight, please. You're giving your mother and me gray hair too soon," I said, putting my keys back down.
"No promises!"
"Sally, tell your son to be careful!" I yelled down the hallway, following behind the freakishly tall, fifteen-year-old in front of me.
"His father was the same way, honey. It's sadly in his blood," she replied, ruffling up Percy's black hair.
"Don't mess up my hair, mom!" Percy exclaimed, playfully hitting Sally's hands away before running off. "I'm waiting for Jason out front!"
"Be careful, Percy! Text me when you get there. I love you!" Sally yelled, trying not to laugh as Percy messily put on his shoes by the front door.
"I love you!" He yelled back, slamming the door behind him.
"We're going to have to get a new door eventually. These boys are too rough on the house," I sighed, shaking my head.
"Just wait until Estelle is older. Teenage girls like to slam doors too," Sally spoke, going back to making lunch.
I playfully gasp, placing my hand over my heart, "I do not want to think of my sweet girl ever acting like that!"
Sally and I had tried to have a child of our own for years after we first got together. After years of struggling, we chose to take a break and to let fate take over. Unfortunately, fate decided to wait until Percy was thirteen and Tyson was fifteen. We both panicked when the test came back positive, as we were in a completely different part of our lives with the boys being a lot older now. Once our panic passed, we could not wait for our third child to come.
To Sally's luck, it was a girl.
When we first got together, she told me about how she always had a dream of having one boy and one girl. I always thought of myself as a boy dad, but as soon as Estelle came, I knew that I was always meant to be a boy and girl dad.
I walked up behind Sally, wrapping my arms around her waist as I placed a gentle kiss on her cheek.
"How did the meeting go?" She asked.
"It went well. They seem like nice people," I said, starting to stare off.
"A penny for your thoughts?"
"The girl, her name is Annabeth. From what her father told me, it seems like her current school is very neglective for students like her," I spoke, trying not to go beyond what I am allowed to talk about.
"That's disappointing," Sally responded. "Did they decide whether they are going to transfer to Goode?"
"They decided on the call," I nodded.
"That's amazing!'
"It is," I said, a small smile forming on my lips. "I'm going to be busy all summer, though."
"Why is that?" Sally asked.
"I need to learn sign language. She's fully deaf and has no hearing aids. The family used to not have the funds to get her any, and haven't gotten around to it with how busy the father is with work," I said, not caring too much now if I overshare or not.
"You already know some from Jason. Maybe he could help teach you," Sally suggested.
"I want Percy to learn too. I'm thinking it might be good for him."
"Honey, he tried when he first met Jason. Don't you remember him accidentally telling the instructor to f-off?" Sally laughed as she talked about the memory.
"Yes, I do remember that, but I will be the one teaching him," I said.
Percy had a special way to learn English, or anything that has to do with a language. Heck, he was lucky to have even passed the two years of Greek he chose to take for his foreign language. Neither Sally nor I understood how he picked up on the language so well.
"Do you think you have enough time to teach him? Honey, this is a whole new language," Sally questioned.
"He'll have Jason and me to teach him. Jason knows how he learns, so I think it'll be easier than you think," I replied.
"If you say so, dear," Sally said, shrugging her shoulders.
I could tell that Sally did not have faith in Percy actually learning the language. In her defense, she might be right. When Jason first moved to Goode, Percy tried to learn the language so he could "secretly" talk to Jason without the teachers yelling at him, not realizing that we too had to learn the language in case Jason's hearing aids died, or if he did not want to wear them one day.
Percy had been going to lessons for three months before he accidentally told the instructor to f-off instead of 'thank you', and the same day decided to quit, as the language was "too hard to learn". Both Sally and I knew that he would have struggled, but still supported him, since he was trying to do something nice for someone he wanted to be friends with.
I tried to teach him myself after finishing my course, but he denied help anytime I asked.
"If it helps, Annabeth is very pretty. I think he might be more motivated to learn for her than he was for Jason," I joked.
"I don't know, Paul. You should hear the things our son and Jason say to each other," Sally said, continuing the joke.
"Oh, trust me, dear. I hear enough of it in class."
We both laughed at our joke. I moved away from Sally and joined her in making lunch.